After the hustle and bustle of Saigon, our journey continued south to the Mekong Delta. From Vinh Long, we took a ferry to An Binh Island. We rode mopeds to our accommodation right by the river.
To welcome us, we were given a delicious fruit platter to enjoy while waiting for check-in.
We spent the afternoon relaxing. Reading a book, watching a series, and letting our souls unwind in the hammock.
Since May 1st is also a public holiday in Vietnam, the owner of the resort had his family as guests. Later, he invited us for a beer. We were waiting for our lunch at the time and sat in front of a buffet. It was tough because we were very hungry. But a beer made it bearable 🤪🍻
For dinner, we had a similar sumptuous meal. Besides the elephant fish, there were spring rolls, braised vegetables, soup, a huge plate of rice, and lots of fruit.
The next morning, we had to get up early. At 6 o'clock, we went on a boat tour on the Mekong. We had breakfast on board:
Since we had a private tour, we could enjoy our time and have peace and quiet. Otherwise, a French family with three children could have joined us, and it would have been much livelier 😅
We first stopped at a junction with a smaller branch of the river. There, we switched to a manually operated boat.
Back on board, we headed to our personal highlight of the day: a floating market. Unfortunately, we were not so lucky as only about five traders were there. Maybe the holiday was a reason. The traders usually have only one product on board, which is prominently attached to a pole.
We then stopped at a boat full of fruit. We bought some fruits for lunch. We bought a pineapple, a dragon fruit, a mango, and 4 mangosteens 🍍🥭
We also encountered the durian, or stink fruit as it is called. We tried it on Ly Son and both of us didn't really like it. For Coline, it's the texture, which can be described as very fibrous and mushy flesh. For Jeff, it's also the smell, which is like old, musty fruit 😅 But visually, it looks good, the durian.
After that, we continued on the Mekong.
The destination was a bonsai garden. Admittedly, there were few impressive bonsai trees, but there were still other interesting plants and vegetation to discover.
Next to Coline is the jackfruit, which could be mistaken for durian 😉
A small sweets factory was the last stop of the tour. They produced puffed rice bars, rice paper crackers, coconut milk candies, and various rice spirits. In the afternoon, we relaxed extensively again. In the evening, we experienced a tropical thunderstorm, which colored the sky in an interesting way. With this day, our adventure in Vietnam ended 🇻🇳
